The accuracy and reliability of a novel smartphone application for orthodontic soft tissue analysis: A pilot study

Elfeky, Mahmoud A.; Aboalnaga, Amira A.; Eid, Faten H.; Mostafa, Yehya A.

doi:10.2478/aoj-2025-0021

Abstract

Background and aim

To establish a smartphone-based application (App) for orthodontic soft-tissue analysis and to compare the derived soft-tissue linear and angular measurements to those acquired from conventional lateral cephalometric and digital photogrammetric analyses.

Methodology

A pilot study was conducted on 26 participants aged between 14 and 30 years who intended to undergo orthodontic treatment. Each participant was subjected to three methods of soft tissue measurement: lateral cephalometric tracing measurements using Dolphin Imaging software, digital photogrammetric tracing measurements using WebCeph Website (webceph.com), and Smartphone App tracing measurements (SOFTBLINK). The applied linear and angular measurements were: Profile facial third, Profile angle, Nasiolabial angle, Mentolabial angle, and Mandibular plane angle. The values obtained from the Dolphin imaging software, WebCeph, and SOFTBLINK application were compared using the repeated measures MANOVA test.

Results

Despite the mild variation obtained in the mean values between the three methods of soft tissue analyses, the MANOVA and the subsequent multiple pairwise comparison tests revealed a statistically non-significant difference between the three methods of soft tissue measurement regarding all of the tested linear and angular measurements.

Conclusions

The results obtained by the SOFTBLINK App showed comparable measurements with the Dolphin Imaging software. User-friendly mobile Apps can be utilised with sufficient accuracy for the soft tissue analysis required in daily clinical orthodontic practice

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